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An stream so low you scarcely got your feet wet divided a village for more than four decades. Because of a chance of topography, the half a hundred residents of Mödlareuth, a small village encircled by pine forests, meadows and breathtaking scenery, found themselves at the heart of the Cold War tensions. They had the misfortune to cross the Bavarian region, in the Federal Republic of Germany, and the Thuringian region in the Eastern part, a boundary that was established first by a enclosure and then by a barricade. United States military personnel nicknamed it Small Berlin.

Commemorating the Past

Months after their own division was opened, and even before their country had reunified in 1990, a group of villagers started memorialising their history. The work is soon to reach completion: on 9 November, the thirty-sixth commemoration of the collapse of the German barrier, the German-German Museum Mödlareuth will begin operations. It was officially inaugurated by the federal president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in early October, but the exhibition was not completely finished. Speaking to the locals who endured the past era, Steinmeier said: “You were witnesses of an brutal split, which pulled families apart and turned local residents into aliens.”

“You were witnesses of an inhuman split, which pulled households apart and turned local residents into aliens.”

Historical Origins

Starting at its establishment in 1810, the village spanned the Bavarian Kingdom and the Princely State of Reuss, a noble lineage most renowned for assigning all its male descendants the title Heinrich and counting them consecutively by birth order. As Steinmeier told the audience, the quirk never stood in the way of the residents socializing in the identical pub, going to the very same religious building and placing their young ones to the very same school.

After the War Split

Then came the World War II. As soon as they arrived, the Russians installed wooden posts by the creek. For a twelve months they occupied the entire hamlet, creating their command in a dwelling on the western side, decorating it with a picture of Stalin and a Soviet emblem. The Americans urged them to pull back to the other side of the creek. For a period, locals could still hop over, though as controls increased they were obliged to show identity papers, although all knew who they were, and to return at night.

Intensification of Boundary Measures

Subsequently, in 1952, came barbed wire and the official shutting of the frontier. In 1966, as in Berlin five years earlier, a barrier was erected, with landmines, vehicle barriers and observation points. The residents could still see each other by climbing elevations, but on the eastern side waving and calling out were prohibited. A local woman was added to a Stasi monitoring list for answering “likewise” to a western villager who greeted her “prosperous new year”.

Heritage Site Creation

I heard stories such as these incidents by Robert Lebegern, the director of the museum, who has dedicated a significant portion of his occupational time developing it. Residents were consulted early on about how much wall they wished to maintain. They selected a section on the west perimeter, adjacent to where a local resident was able to flee in the darkest hours with a ladder, following which the frontier was heavily strengthened.

Conserved Buildings

Two watchtowers are maintained alongside a set of displays depicting the most dramatic dates in the village’s chronicle. As we walk, Lebergen details the restrictions: nobody could get closer than 5km of the border. Rural residents needed specific authorization to tend to their produce; the husband or wife could use the agricultural equipment but not the two, lest they sought to make a run for it. Military personnel were on duty.

Broader Background

The boundary between Western Germany and the GDR ran nearly 900 miles, from the Baltic coast in the north to here in the southern region. Berlin is recalled and memorialised the most frequently, but in excess of two times more persons (well over 300) lost their lives trying to cross it in provincial zones than in the big city. Robert Lebegern tells me that 95% of attempts to flee failed.

Community Life

The greater part of Mödlareuth’s residents were agricultural workers or artisans, who adjusted to residing in the grey zone between two political systems by avoiding attention and looking after their fields. They neither backed the communist regime nor resisted it, Lebegern states.

Tourism

For visitors, however, the village became a sort of site of interest. About 15k visited every year, optical devices in their hands, to stare – and then swiftly go away. In 1983, the United States leader, George Bush, was given a tour by the German defense official.

Twenty-five years after unification, the television series, a broadcast production about a made-up community like Mödlareuth, led to renewed curiosity.

Present-Day Developments

The inauguration of the recently established museum – with a coffee shop, store, cinema room and sizable car park – is likely to